Nocardiopsis deserti sp. nov., isolated from a high altitude Atacama Desert soil

The taxonomic status of a Nocardiopsis strain, designated H13T, isolated from a high altitude Atacama Desert soil, was established by using a polyphasic approach. The strain was found to have chemotaxonomic, cultural and morphological characteristics consistent with its classification within the genus Nocardiopsis and formed a well-supported clade in the Nocardiopsis phylogenomic tree together with the type strains of Nocardiopsis alborubida, Nocardiopsis dassonvillei and Nocardiopsis synnematoformans. Strain H13T was distinguished from its closest relatives by low average nucleotide identity (93.2–94.9 %) and in silico DNA–DNA hybridization (52.5–62.4 %) values calculated from draft genome assemblies and by a range of phenotypic properties. On the basis of these results, it is proposed that the isolate be assigned to the genus Nocardiopsis as Nocardiopsis deserti sp. nov. with isolate H13T (=CGMCC 4.7585T=KCTC 49249T) as the type strai

Metabolic engineering of plant secondary metabolites: prospects and its technological challenges

Plants produce a wide range of secondary metabolites that play vital roles for their primary functions such as growth, defence, adaptations or reproduction. Some of the plant secondary metabolites are beneficial to mankind as nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals. Metabolic pathways and their regulatory mechanism are crucial for targeting metabolite engineering. The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/Cas9-mediated system has been widely applied in genome editing with high accuracy, efficiency, and multiplex targeting ability. Besides its vast application in genetic improvement, the technique also facilitates a comprehensive profiling approach to functional genomics related to gene discovery involved in various plant secondary metabolic pathways. Despite these wide applications, several challenges limit CRISPR/Cas system applicability in genome editing in plants. This review highlights updated applications of CRISPR/Cas system-mediated metabolic engineering of plants and its challenges

Nocardiopsis halophila Al-Tai and Ruan 1994

EMENDED DESCRIPTION OF THE NOCARDIOPSIS HALOPHILA AL-TAI AND RUAN 1994 The description is based on Al-Tai and Ruan [9], Li et al. [3] and Nouioui et al. [10]. Utilization of inositol, raffinose and xylose are variable. Urea hydrolysis is variable. The major phospholipids may contain phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylinositol, phosphatidylinositolmannoside or phosphatidylmethylethanolamine, besides diphosphotidylglycerol and phosphotidylcholine. May tolerate temperature as high as 50 Ǫ C. The type strain of Nocardiopsis halophila is IQ-H3 T (=CGMCC 4.1195 T = DSM 44494 T =JCM 9892 T). The former type strain of Nocardiopsis baichengensis YIM 90130 T (=CCTCC AA 2040016 T = DSM 44845 T =KCTC 19009 T) is another strain of Nocardiopsis halophila. The G +C content of the type strain is 73.6 mol%.Published as part of Zhang, Xiao-Tong, Salam, Nimaichand, Xiao, Min, Asem, Mipeshwaree Devi & Li, Wen-Jun, 2020, Genome analysis reveals that Nocardiopsis baichengensis Li et al. 2006 is a later heterotypic synonym of Nocardiopsis halophila Al-Tai and Ruan 1994, pp. 89-92 in International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology 70 (1) on page 92, DOI: 10.1099/ijsem.0.003721, http://zenodo.org/record/604867

Actinobacterial diversity in limestone deposit sites in Hundung, Manipur (India) and their antimicrobial activities

Studies on actinobacterial diversity in limestone habitats are scarce. This paper reports profiling of actinobacteria isolated from Hundung limestone samples in Manipur, India using ARDRA as the molecular tool for preliminary classification. A total of 137 actinobacteria were clustered into 31 phylotypic groups based on the ARDRA pattern generated and representative of each group was subjected to 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Generic diversity of the limestone isolates consisted of Streptomyces (15 phylotypic groups), Micromonospora (4), Amycolatopsis (3), Arthrobacter (3), Kitasatospora (2), Janibacter (1), Nocardia (1), Pseudonocardia (1) and Rhodococcus (1). Considering the antimicrobial potential of these actinobacteria, 19 showed antimicrobial activities against at least one of the bacterial and candidal test pathogens, while 45 exhibit biocontrol activities against at least one of the rice fungal pathogens. Out of the 137 actinobacterial isolates, 118 were found to have at least one of the three biosynthetic gene clusters (PKS-I, PKS-II, NRPS). The results indicate that 86% of the strains isolated from Hundung limestone deposit sites possessed biosynthetic gene clusters of which 40% exhibited antimicrobial activities. It can, therefore, be concluded that limestone habitat is a promising source for search of novel secondary metabolites